If you’re a female filmmaker, you’re better off in the indie realm than in Hollywood, say two new studies.

Women filled 18 percent of the behind-the-camera roles as directors, writers, producers, cinematographers and editors on the top 250 domestic movies of 2012, according to research released by the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University, reported Variety. However, nearly 30 percent of filmmakers of American movies selected to screen at Sundance over the past 11 years were women, revealed a study commissioned by the Sundance Institute and Women in Film Los Angeles, compared to 4.4 percent of directors across the top 100 films at the box office in the same time period.

“This data shows us that there is a higher representation of female filmmakers in independent film as compared to Hollywood,” said Cathy Schulman, president of Women in Film Los Angeles in announcing the figures, “but it also highlights the work that is still to be done for women to achieve equal footing in the field.”

The SDSU study, conducted for more than 10 years by the Center’s executive director Martha Lauzen, found that 9 percent of Hollywood directors were women last year. That’s zero improvement since 1998, when the percentage of female helmers was at the same level, although the numbers dropped to 5 percent in 2011 and 7 percent in 2006. Meanwhile, nearly 24 percent of Sundance directors have been women, according to the festival’s study.

And the number of female producers working on Hollywood films according to Lazuen’s research remained at 25 percent last year, compared to almost a third of all narrative producers and 42.5 percent of documentary producers of Sundance titles.

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